I don’t really think there’s much I can say that hasn’t already been said about the men and women who sacrificed so much — up to and including their lives — in the wars of this and last century. War is really a very terrible thing, albeit a terrible thing that is sometimes necessary to engage in, when it is thrust upon us and the alternative seems to be a far worse horror. And there is a particular kind of courage to be found in those who would, in such times, stand up and risk sacrificing everything to prevent that horror.

So to all of those who have served in the military, either in the past or at this moment, can I simply offer my thanks? Thank you for standing at the ready…and for rushing into the fray, if it came to that.

And to everyone, can I encourage you to take a moment to just…remember? To pause for a brief while, to reflect on the world in which you live today, and to contemplate the often terrible cost by which that world was attained?